MacroSnaps12 August 2026
No. 32Sequencing a human genome cost $100 million in 2001, now it is a couple of hundred dollars.
The grey dashed line is Moore's law: the transistors on a chip double about every two years, so computing keeps getting cheaper. Sequencing fell even faster.
Actual cost$200(2024)Moore's law pace$30,000(2024)
Cost to sequence one human genome ($, log scale), against Moore's law, the pace of computer chips. Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles about every two years, so computing power gets steadily cheaper. Sequencing cost tracked it until around 2008, then plunged far below it.
Why this is happening
- Around 2008 next-generation sequencing replaced reading DNA one fragment at a time with reading millions of fragments in parallel, which broke the cost curve away from the steady pace of computer chips.
- Fierce competition between sequencing-machine makers, and ever-rising output per run, kept driving the price down year after year.
The take
When reading your DNA costs less than a blood test, it stops being research and becomes routine. Medicine built around the average patient gives way to treatment tuned to the individual one.